Since becoming a tourist resort in the 1860s, the winding stretch of Mediterranean coastline extending from Marseilles to Menton—known as the French Riviera—has inspired numerous artists with its scenic beauty and radiant light. Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was among the first modern artists to settle in the town of Nice, the center of artistic and intellectual life in the region, where he would remain from 1917 until the end of his life in 1954. Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), Raoul Dufy (1877–1953), and Chaim Soutine (1894–1943) were among the other artists drawn to the spectacular scenery and distinctive clarity of light along the coast. Henri Matisse and Modern Art on the French Riviera (through October 25, 2009) presents approximately 35 paintings and sculptures by Matisse and his contemporaries from the Museum’s collection and two local private collections.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art continues its commitment to presenting stimulating contemporary art with Notations: The Closing Decade (on view through November 2009) a presentation that includes the work of 13 artists from around the world made in the closing years of the 20th century. Taking the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 as a starting point, and leading up to the traumatic events of September 2001, the exhibition highlights the range of artistic pursuit during this period of profound global and societal transformation. It includes painting, sculpture, and video from the Museum’s collection complemented by a small number of loans.

In conjunction with the exhibition Gee’s Bend: the Architecture of the Quilt (on view through December 14), the Philadelphia Museum of Art will present the world premiere of a commissioned work by one of the most adventurous artists working in jazz today, Jason Moran. On Friday, December 12, the Museum’s Art After 5 program will host Moran and his group The Bandwagon performing with special guest and Grammy-award winner Bill Frisell, the widely acclaimed guitarist whose distinctive style is rooted in jazz and incorporates elements of folk, classical, and country music.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fabric Workshop and Museum will present a multi-site exhibition of the work of Cai Guo-Qiang, one of the most prominent contemporary artists on the international art scene. Cai Guo-Qiang: Fallen Blossoms consists of a poetic meditation on the passing of time, memory, and memorializing. One of the artist’s signature “explosion events,” Fallen Blossoms: Explosion Project, has been specifically commissioned for the exhibition and will take place at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; a second explosion event will follow at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. Inspired by the memory of Anne d'Harnoncourt (1943-2008), late director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and her long friendship with the founder and artistic director of the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Marion Boulton Stroud, Cai Guo-Qiang: Fallen Blossoms addresses themes of memory, loss and renewal on a personal and public level. It is Cai's first solo exhibition in Philadelphia and the first in the United States since his retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in early 2008.

In celebration of the 32nd-annual Craft Show organized by the Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the Museum will present Cultural Convergence: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Craft — an exhibition that reveals the breadth and depth of the Museum’s craft holdings. Cultural Convergence (on view November 1, 2008 - March 2009) presents 34 works added to the collection since the year 2000, most of which are on view for the first time. Ranging from glass and metal to fiber, clay and wood, these works were created in Japan, Australia, Kenya, Colombia and other countries, illustrating the ways in which the art of contemporary craft is interpreted across the globe.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will be the only venue in the world for Cezanne and Beyond (Feb. 21 - May 17). A major international loan exhibition, through work by Cezanne and 16 artists of later generations, it surveys the impact and influence of the French painter whom Picasso described as "The Father of us all."

In honor of Philadelphia’s remarkable World Series champions, the Phillies, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will give away its own signature baseballs—Philly All Star< and All Star Artists—to the first 100 Museum members and the first 100 general purchasers when tickets for Cézanne and Beyond go on sale. Member tickets are available beginning 9 a.m. Saturday, November 1, and tickets for the general public go on sale at 9 a.m. November 15.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will present the first exhibition to focus on a single, critical project in the history of Frank Gehry’s firm and demonstrate how the architect’s ideas evolve throughout its design process. The Lewis House was a decade-long (1985-1995) residential commission for Peter B. Lewis in Lyndhurst, Ohio that began as a simple remodeling project but developed into a far more complicated and larger residence design that underwent various expansions, contractions and modifications. The project gave Gehry an unprecedented opportunity to experiment, and in the process, achieve the formal and technological breakthroughs that have informed all his later work and made him one of the most influential architects working today. While the Lewis House was ultimately not built, the project is unique for the sheer volume and range of work produced, and its relationship to Gehry’s other work, in Bilbao, Barcelona, Prague, Dusseldorf and Berlin – which is also represented in the exhibition. In collaboration with Gehry Partners, LLP, the Museum will present some 120 architectural models, drawings, photographs, and videos, together with furniture, and decorative arts, that show how the architect generates and processes ideas.Frank O. Gehry: Design Process and the Lewis House will be presented in the Collab Gallery of the Museum’s Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building.

The latest installment of the Live Cinema series at the Philadelphia Museum of Art presents the work of Italian artist and filmmaker Anita Sieff who in her films explores the complexities of human communication in lyrical and everyday scenarios. The exhibition Anita Sieff: Films focuses on her work in film and video since 1993. In these films contemporary urban settings provide the backdrop for a series of fragmented, and at times abstract dialogues, through which women and men explore the complex terrain of their interpersonal relationships. In films such as Public Love (2003) and Fashion Weather Forecast (2006), Sieff reveals the ways in which individual identities are constructed, beliefs debated, and emotions examined through these interactions.

“Here is a building filled with art. What will you find inside?”So begins A is for Art Museum[ISBN 978-0-87633-203-0] — the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s first children’s book, penned by a pair of Museum educators. Published this October in association with Temple University Press, this playful alphabet book will take preschoolers on a whirlwind A-to-Z tour through the Museum’s collection. Over the course of 67 colorful pages, children can practice their ABCs while enhancing their powers of observation. They can also discover some of the Museum’s outstanding works of art, ranging from beloved favorites such as Edgar Degas’s bronze sculpture of a 14-year-old ballet dancer (“D is for Dancer”) to Takashi Murakami’s bright Anime-inspired cartoon creature (“Y is for Yellow”). Each image is accompanied by questions designed to get children thinking and talking about what they see.

Friday nights are always something to celebrate at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Art After 5 brings the top names in jazz and international music to the Museum’s elegant Great Stair Hall. Each Friday evening the space becomes a lively concert hall, with table service, cocktails, elegant café-style appetizers, and desserts. The fall 2008 season features the return of popular favorite artists and several exciting newcomers, while the first-ever Art After 5 Halloween party brings the dark, ambient sound of the Gothic 80s back to life. And in conjunction with the exhibition Gee’s Bend: the Architecture of the Quilt, the Museum is proud to present the world premiere of a commissioned work by one of the most intriguing and innovative composers working in jazz today, Jason Moran.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art announced today the appointment of Peter D. Barberie to the position of Curator of Photographs, Alfred Stieglitz Center, in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, effective October 1, 2008.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, in partnership with The Barnes Foundation, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, announced today the launch of Art Speaks! This new initiative is designed to send the Philadelphia School District’s 14,000 fourth graders on an action-packed art adventure that will open their eyes to the area’s artistic treasures and at the same time augment their literacy skills.

While the mandala is an artistic form rarely associated with photography, a new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Photo Mandalas: Bill Armstrong and Milan Fano Blatný (September 6, 2008 – January 2009), will present more than 35 works by Armstrong (American, born 1952) and Blatný (Czech, born 1972), two contemporary photographers who have been inspired by this ancient symbol. The artists draw on the mandala concept in producing these images, although they have interpreted it liberally. While their technical approaches to representing the mandala are quite different, both Armstrong and Blatný employ the potent and universal symbol of forms emanating from a central core to inspire contemplation and wonder.

Visitors to the Philadelphia Museum of Art this fall will be presented with a wide variety of choice experiences. While they explore the vast collection and ground-breaking exhibitions, visitors will also have the opportunity to participate in dozens of public programs, including performances, films, family activities, lectures, workshops and special courses. During the 2008 fall season, the Education department will present a medley of offerings in conjunction with three special exhibitions that focus on self-taught artists and vernacular art. The department will also debut its greatly expanded film and video lineup — including a new “Film in Perelman” program on “Second Sundays” — and continue such perennial favorites as its 45-minute gallery “Spotlight Talks” and weekly family-friendly “Drawing Together” in the galleries.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will present the first comprehensive museum exhibition of the art of James Castle (1899-1977), one of the most enigmatic and remarkable self-taught artists to emerge in the United States during the 20th century. James Castle: A Retrospective (October 14, 2008 – January 4, 2009) will examine the full visual and conceptual range of the artist’s work, bringing together almost 300 examples from 60 public and private collections. It will explore the variety of modes Castle employed throughout his life, from drawings and colored wash pieces to handmade books, assemblages, and text works, for all of which he used found pieces of paper or cardboard and homemade inks and colorants primarily of his own invention.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will present the first museum exhibition devoted to the bold and expressive vision of Thomas Chambers, the 19th-century artist who was once hailed as “America’s first modern.” Thomas Chambers (1808-1869), American Marine and Landscape Painter (Sept. 27 – Dec. 28, 2008) includes 45 of the artist’s works, approximately 15 paintings and prints by his contemporaries and a selection of decorative arts from the heyday of American “fancy” taste. Although much of his life has been a mystery until recently, Chambers played a pioneering role in the development of popular American landscape and maritime art in the mid-19th century. His distinctive style has been widely recognized since the 1940s, when he was rediscovered as a precursor to American modern artists. Chambers’ work has been included in numerous surveys of American art, but until now his paintings have never been assembled to consider the breadth of his career. The exhibition is drawn from public and private collections and will travel to three venues following its debut in Philadelphia.

A lively and diverse line-up of Philadelphia-based performers will take center stage this summer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s popular “Art After 5” program. Each Friday evening, the Museum’s Great Stair Hall is transformed into a concert hall, complete with table service, cocktails, elegant café-style appetizers, and desserts. Art After 5 features a range of established and emerging jazz performers, with forays on the first Friday of each month into other musical genres. In August, visitors can enjoy a night of classic country music set to a 1920 silent western film, and in September an intimate, engaging performance by leading vocalists from the Center City Opera Theater. In between sets visitors have a chance to explore the Museum’s more than 200 galleries and special exhibitions.

This summer, visitors to the Philadelphia Museum of Art will reach into the vest pocket of an 18th-century master furniture craftsman and pull out his secret guide to pricing furniture in colonial America’s wealthiest and most fashionable city. The Fix on Colonial Philadelphia Furniture: A Secret Guide to Cabinetmakers’ Prices (July 5, 2008 – Spring 2009) will showcase the only remaining copy of the world’s first published furniture price book alongside the very works of art it lists. Philadelphia’s 36-page printed price book will be on display for the first time, along with enlargements of selected pages to help visitors decode the price lists. As a price guide, the book reveals the array of furniture — ranging from tables, chairs, chests and bookshelves to picture frames, ironing boards, and even coffins — and the values craftsmen assigned to various sizes and embellishments. The exhibition spans two American art galleries and features 23 pieces of colonial furniture, including items from the Museum’s famous Cadwalader collection.

Beginning as a child with embellishments to the costumes of his sister’s dolls, the American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898-1976) created more than 1800 pieces of jewelry. Best known for his invention of the mobile, Calder also produced these precious ornaments throughout his lifetime—for his wife, family, artists, friends—and as a more intimate dimension of his monumental art. The personal nature of his jewelry, and the inspiration it drew from sources ranging from the primitive to the modern, provide insight into Calder’s life and art. From July 12 until November 2, 2008, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will present Calder Jewelry, the first museum exhibition to examine the jewelry on its own and in depth, as sculpture on a smaller scale. The exhibition, in the Perelman Building, consists of some 100 necklaces, bracelets, pins, earrings, and tiaras.

Gerry Lenfest, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Philadelphia Museum of Art, today announced the board’s unanimous vote to appoint Chief Operating Officer Gail Harrity as the Museum’s Interim Chief Executive Officer, and Associate Director of Collections Alice Beamesderfer as Interim Head of Curatorial Affairs. These appointments, effective immediately, follow the unexpected death on June 1 of Anne d’Harnoncourt, The George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer. A selection committee co-chaired by Trustees Martha Morris and Keith Sachs will be organized in the coming weeks to search for a permanent successor.

On behalf of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the City of Philadelphia, Gerry Lenfest, the Museum’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and the City Council, joined by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, declared today that Thursday, June 19, 2008, will be an official day of appreciation in Philadelphia to honor the Museum’s longtime Director and Chief Executive Officer Anne d’Harnoncourt, who died unexpectedly on Sunday, June 1.

Anne d’Harnoncourt, Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who led the institution with greatness and grace since 1982, died Sunday, June 1, 2008 at her home in Center City Philadelphia of cardiac arrest.

The first traveling exhibition outside Asia to highlight the works of Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) will make its only East Coast stop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this summer. Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (June 27 – Sept. 1, 2008) includes nearly 100 of the artist’s finest paintings in a variety of styles and media. Considered the father of modern art in India, Bose worked to regenerate and redefine India’s art during the region’s emergence from British colonial rule and transition to an independent nation in 1947. The San Diego Museum of Art organized the exhibition in collaboration with the government of India and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. The paintings on display were selected from nearly 7,000 of the artist’s works, all of which are held by the NGMA as the result of a gift to India from the artist’s family. The exhibition marks the first time a survey of Bose’s artworks — which are considered Indian National Treasures — has traveled to the United States.

The Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, the nation's oldest tuition-free art school, announced the completion of a special children’s garden named for artist and former Fleisher Board member, “Bootsie” Weiss. Ms. Weiss, whose artistic medium is mosaics, provided a gift to the Fleisher to fund the project. A ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially dedicate the Garden is slated for May 10, 2008.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will present a special installation devoted to the art of British artists Gilbert & George who have created all their art together since the late 1960s and are known for their dramatic, large-scale colorful pictures. Drawn from the Museum collection and supplemented by additional loans, Gilbert & George (May 2-November 2, 2008) includes 13 pictures indicative of the major phases of their art from the 1970s and 1980s. On view in the Alter Gallery (Gallery 176, first floor), the installation is the fifth in the Museum’s Notations series.

This spring the Philadelphia Museum of Art collaborates with one of the region’s most vital artist organizations to present Emerging to Established: Twenty-Five Years of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists. Organized in conjunction with the CFEVA in celebration of this milestone anniversary, the exhibition includes works on paper by 25 artists, including current and former Fellows from CFEVA’s Career Development Program, as well as members of its Board of Artistic Advisors, who select the Fellows. It will be on view through July 6 in the Director’s Gallery.

Live Cinema/ Carlos Amorales: Four Animations, Five Drawings, and a Plague focuses on the work of Carlos Amorales, one of Mexico’s leading contemporary artists. This exhibition includes a selection of video animations in Gallery 179, along with a group of new drawings, and a cloud of black paper moths that swirl along a staircase and spread across the walls and ceiling of Gallery 178.

What better way to put the swing in spring than catching a live jazz or world music performance at Art After 5? Each Friday evening the Great Stair Hall at the Philadelphia Museum of Art becomes a lively cabaret, with table service, cocktails, elegant café-style appetizers, and desserts. The spring 2008 program schedule includes acclaimed favorite performers as well as innovative emerging artists, with a special focus on the most versatile of instruments, the piano, as it is featured in styles ranging from Afro Cuban to blues and gospel to classic jazz. Five of this season’s shows will highlight pianists.

The 21st Annual Gary Long Memorial Lecture will be delivered by sculptor Shelley Spector on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 in conjunction with Spector’s Challenge exhibition and preceding the 110th Annual Adult Student Members Exhibition. Ms. Spector’s Challenge exhibition, in the gallery till the 15th of March, provides the opportunity to hear her speak about her work on site. The Annual Adult Student Members Exhibition is the culmination of the 110th year of fine art instruction at South Philadelphia’s Fleisher Art Memorial. This year’s exhibition will consist of two parts – designed and developed by students and their instructors – exemplifying the teaching and learning philosophy of the Fleisher Art Memorial. Nearly 400 students will have their work on view in Fleisher’s galleries. Many of these works will be for sale.

The Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial is pleased to announce changes to the Wind Challenge Series. Beginning fall 2008, the Wind Challenge Exhibitions at Fleisher will be presented in three clusters of three artist shows, updating the present model of four clusters of three-artist exhibitions. The new arrangement will allow for six week exhibitions instead of the present four week format. Longer exhibit time will afford more opportunities for educational programming. Also, Fleisher will be accepting both slides and digital submissions with the intention of having all applicants submit online the following year. In addition to longer exhibitions, Fleisher will provide each of the nine artists with a $1000 honorarium in recognition of the high caliber of their work.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will be the only East Coast venue for the first major exhibition in 15 years to be devoted to Frida Kahlo in the United States. Frida Kahlo (February 20-May 18, 2008) examines the art of one of the most influential artists of the last 50 years. The exhibition includes 42 of the Mexican artist’s self-portraits, portraits, allegorical and symbolic paintings and still lifes, among them paintings that have never been exhibited before and others that will be seen in the U.S. for the first time. The exhibition is drawn from more than 30 collections in the U.S., Mexico, France, and Japan. Two of the most important and extensive collections of Kahlo’s work – the Museo Dolores Olmedo in Mexico City and the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection of Modern and Contemporary Mexican Art, Cuernavaca – have lent many of their most treasured Kahlo paintings. The exhibition is organized by Walker Art Center in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Create your own Valentine cards and learn about printmaking at the eighth annual Print Love-In, the Fleisher Art Memorial’s Valentine’s Day printmaking workshop. The Print Love-In will be held from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2:00 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 3, 2008 (snow date: February 10) at Fleisher’s Center for Works on Paper, 705 Christian Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147. Cost of participation, including all materials, is $10 per person or $20 for a family of four. Appropriate for children 5 and older. Reservations are recommended, and can be made now by calling (215) 922-3456 ext 330.dd

Students and faculty from the Fleisher Art Memorial’s free tuition etching and lithography classes will exhibit their work at the Friends of 705 print exhibition. The opening reception is January 26, 4:00-6:00 p.m. in Fleisher’s Center for Works on Paper and will run through April 26, 2008.

There may be no better way to beat the winter blues than to catch a live performance at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Art After 5, where the blues is jazz and the scope is international. The winter 2008 program schedule includes acclaimed favorite performers as well as innovative emerging artists. Each Friday evening the Great Stair Hall becomes a lively cabaret, with table service, cocktails, elegant café-style appetizers, and desserts. This season Art After 5 is proud to present the Philadelphia début of the Grammy Award winning Maria Schneider Orchestra (January 11). The Washington Post has called Schneider “the foremost big-band composer of her generation.” Her latest release, “Sky Blue,” recently received two Grammy nominations: one for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and one for Best Instrumental Composition (“Cerulean Skies”). Other notable nights in the Winter 2008 season include the sophisticated spinning of New York City DJ Bekhra (Feb 4), who merges traditional South Asian Bhangra music with the Hip-Hop beats of today; and a multimedia celebration of Japanese music, design and architecture (March 7).

For more information, please contact the Press Room by phone at 215-684-7860, by fax at 215-235-0050, or by e-mail at .